T2000

Fig. 1.

(facing page). Choy Kok Kee, T2000, digital installation, 1999. T2000 represents a new relationship between environmental influence and stimulation, based on the concepts of stability and disturbance, dealing with the impact of technology and its social implications on our daily lives.

© Choy Kok Kee

T2000 represents a new relationship between environmental influence and stimulation, based on the concepts of stability and disturbance [1]. The work is endowed with a virtual intelligence that enables it to maintain its internal stability by coordinating spontaneous and interactive responses that automatically compensate for changes in the environment. When the audience enters into the threshold of the virtual space, it is confronted by two digital pieces—Y2K Virus and Stressed Boxes—that form the appearance of the virtual space (Fig. 1). T2000 senses the presence of users through their interaction with the pieces. The audience stimulates and destabilizes the environment from its normal relaxed undulation to an excited, rapid palpitation by moving the elements in the pieces with the mouse. Only when the mouse movement stops and the users leave the space does the environment return to its usual tranquil state, as if awaiting the next round of confrontation.

The physical interactions of users modify the structure and rhythm of the elements in two ways: in Y2K Virus, users move a wormlike creature simply by moving the mouse, while in Stressed Boxes, the mouse is used to juggle five cubes in an empty space. Both pieces concurrently generate two different audio experiences. By default, Y2K Virus takes an uncontrollable rhythmic audio order, while Stressed Boxes allows users to control the audio order and volume by dropping each cube at a different height and position. Dragging the cube to the base of the screen will stop all movement and sound.

My work seeks to reconcile technological, aesthetic and artistic factors by placing an emphasis on the relationship between the creator (myself) and the environment (virtual space), on one hand, and technology, the environment, the public and mass society on the other. As T2000 deals with the impact of technology and its social implications on our daily life, the audience's response to my work is an important factor in the whole process.

One of the most urgent issues in contemporary society is the relationship between proliferating technologies and a sense of social stability. Technological development as a phenomenon has to be induced, stimulated and appropriately guided. People need knowledge and understanding at their disposal, channeled by the human propensity to innovate, the means to do good, and necessary usage. A sense of interdependence based on humanistic values is necessary to distinguish between two kinds of technological development: one in the form of a rising level of material technical devices designed solely for economic and political reasons, and the other in the form of technological development based on the growth of people's abilities and the enhancement of their lives. As we move and juggle with both, a larger conclusion with greater meaning should be alluded to, so that more humanistic values can be elicited. There is ample evidence of such antagonism nowadays, especially when rapid technological development takes place in the sphere of armaments, where it collides with the principles of a balanced ecology and world peace.